Meet Soapwater Productions: The Indie Filmmakers You Should Know About

Meet Soapwater Productions: The Indie Filmmakers You Should Know About

With millions of talented creators and established professionals constantly fighting for your attention, how is it possible for new players to break through and stand out, especially in the entertainment industry? I sat down with moviemakers John Slice, Fen Rockwell, and Max Joseph to explore their vision and unique brand. Soapwater Productions is a clever, young film company intent on letting their individuality and creativity rule.

The McBryde dorm at the University of South Carolina found these three young artists working as Resident Mentors for the incoming class. Over time, they bonded over their love for film and eventually began creating short mini-movies in their free time. Their personalities and individual talents were a recipe for success. All three are skilled in scriptwriting and like to develop their own ideas on paper and take them to the group to produce. With Slice as the primary cinematographer, Joseph as the sound engineer and composer, and Rockwell as the graphic designer and producer, they manage to round out a full movie crew among just the three of them.

When it comes to style, they hesitate to restrict themselves to one genre. Described in their own words as eclectic and independent, they draw inspiration from many different styles, but their main goal is to create a “unique atmosphere” for each project.

“We have done scenes completely based on just the feeling we want to convey, instead of a specific genre. There’s one we did, it’s called And May We Be Ever-Present—which Max wrote—and it was completely based on what we wanted to make people feel,” Slice explained.

The short film Quite Mistaken is also one of their favorite demonstrations of how they create atmosphere and tone. Joseph remarks, “atmosphere is very important in that film—the set design, cinematography was a big focus, the music, the acting, the dialogue. We are trying to create an entertaining and interesting dialogue. It’s a great representation of who we are in a short period of time.”

The group also shared some of the influences that have helped shape their unique style. Rockwell accredits much of their inspiration to A24, an independent New York City-based entertainment company. “There’s a lot of great directors associated with A24, especially newer directors that are just breaking out on the scene, and they have some really great projects that are coming out, and they’re different—they’re not meant to be blockbusters, but somehow they end up being these really great projects that everybody can find some sort of enjoyment with.” Specifically referencing directors Ari Aster (Midsommar, Hereditary) and Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse), the group admires how they take influences from different genres and people and recreate their own work with that inspiration in mind. Beyond A24, the biggest influence for Soapwater Productions may be David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Eraserhead), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, There Will Be Blood).

However, the group makes it clear that they are always original. Originality is paramount to this group. They have never used any public domain footage or music; everything has been created exclusively by the trio. Slice notes, “We never want to reproduce what a movie looks like. A lot of people, especially a lot of students, are just trying their hardest to get their movies to look, sound, and feel like a Hollywood movie, something you’d see in theaters. We take pride in trying to not only make it look professional, but do something different than that; to add ourselves, rather than fill the bullet points of what a professional Hollywood film looks like.”

In the future, Soapwater Productions hopes to expand on what they do best. “Ideally, we’d love to make films for the rest of our lives, to get financing and have big supporters that put money into our projects so that we can make longer projects, more well-rounded projects with huge crews and a bigger cast, so we can put a lot of time and effort into it,” Rockwell describes. The most important thing to them is that they continue to evolve and have fun doing what they do best. In the coming year, they intend to focus on festival entries. While Slice finishes his final year of college, they hope to capitalize on student film festivals, including the Student Academy Awards or the Cannes Student Film Festival. They have since been selected for the Vesuvius International Monthly Film Festival, and intend to continue to develop their unique brand, always careful not to conform to the norm for the sake of the audience, but to make movies that they can put their best work into and showcase their own style and goals.

Personally, they will continue to build on their individual skills as well. In the coming years, Slice hopes to go to grad school for cinematography, while Joseph will continue to develop his scriptwriting and composition skills. He is interested in pursuing an animated children’s cartoon in which he can compose the sound score and continue to expand on his own musical ability. Rockwell’s “north star” is to be a professional film producer. He remarks on how much he enjoys putting talented people together and watching a project unfold.

2021 is a busy year for the group. They have two upcoming productions currently in the works. They are very excited to begin filming their first western, titled The One and The Same. Described as an “ode to the Western genre” they will undoubtedly put their own comedic twist on the classic style. They have done an impressive job working with the resources around them up to this point, but now they are looking forward to branching out, specifically to find some new actors. Joseph stars in almost every one of their projects as an actor, and Rockwell and Slice frequently appear in their own films as well.

July 25 marks the release date of Soapwater Productions’ newest project: Kristine. Described as a classic 80’s horror flick with a twist, Kristine follows a sweet yet ditzy girl who invites her boyfriend over for a night of scary movies. This was inspired when Joseph was working on the set of the musical Rock of Ages. They loved the overstuffed 80s bedroom set and crafted a story around that snapshot. When asked if they could briefly summarize it, all three laughed, and summed it up with “chocolate chip cookies, a nut allergy, and a subversion of expectations.”

Watch Kristine, Quite Mistaken, and dozens more of Soapwater Productions’ best work on their YouTube channel here.